Agreed. That was a thing of beauty. On the replay, you could clearly see Stuckey looking back at Turkoglu to see if he would try and double. As soon as he did, he kicked it back to Tay for the wide open 3. That was definitely pre-meditated.

I was impressed with how calm and cool Stuckey was in this game. Zero turnovers in 33 minutes with 6 assists. Ladies and gentlemen, we have found CBs successor.

I'm glad the refs weren't calling phantom fouls. There were a few humiliating plays down the stretch. Sheed ripping the ball away from Howard. Turk getting blocked by Maxiell. Turk getting blocked by Tay. Nelson (Mr. Guaranty) just losing the ball with no real pressure. Turk fumbling the ball out of bounds at the end.

Who's got next? Boston, or Cleveland. Whichever one it is, we face a strong small forward. This could be a problem, as Flip still has not solved how to backup Prince. In this game, we were minus 15 with Prince sitting, and trying to use Hayes and then later Herrmann to back up Tay. Wrong players. Neither should even be dressed for us.

Six straight East finals appearances. Absolutely, us Piston fans should be proud of our team for this accomplishment. But at the same time, we all know how the world veiwed a Utah team that kept getting that far but not getting a Championship. Yes, our team does have one, but that was 4 years ago. Another one would stamp this group of players as truly something special. But two tough series stand in our way.

Rip was terrible, absolutely terrible, and yet he was the scoring hero for us. Rip could not hit a midranger to save his life. Not one made tonight. But he got to the rack several times for hoops. He made 16 of 16 free throws. That is a lot of going inside. Rip did make one of about 3 three point attempts, his only outside shot made of quite a few. As a team, we shot terrible, led by Rip's futility on his midrangers.

Stuckey finally missed a free throw in the playoffs. At least I don't think he had missed one prior to tonight. I think he is about 24 for 25 or something like that now. Pretty darn good. Stuckey made one outside shots on his way to 15 points. He also made a short jumper on a fast break. Other than that, his scoring was all layups and at the line. A couple of the layups were pretty nifty, but short of spectacular. One of them gave us a lead that we never gave up.

Dixon got into the game for a moment or two. I think he missed one shot, did not hurt us on D. That was the start of the 4th, a quarter where Orlando did not score a bucket for the first 8 minutes. You guessed it, Hayes nor Herrmann played in the 2nd half. And Tay got no rest at all.

Rip passed Thomas for the Pistons all time playoff scoring lead. Maybe he knew about this and was nervous. For some reason, the guy just could not get a quality shot attempt off. Couldn't even find the right zip code. Tay did it again. Huge block on Turk with Turk going for a layup. Helped seal the win in the last seconds. Gee, we had a ten point lead with not much time to go, and Orlando still found a way to charge right back into the game in the last minute. Can't say they ever stop fighting, thats for sure. Orlando self destructed thruout this game, passing the 20 turnover mark while the Pistons barely turned the ball over at all. This included zero turns for Stuck.

Stuckey again found himself in foul trouble early in the game. Second foul picked up just a few minutes into the game. But he ended up with one fine game, scoring the points, dishing out assists steadily, and playing fine D on Nelson. (We also switch Stuckey onto their small forward at times.)

Sheed had a huge problem thinking he just had to keep jacking up three after three. He never made one, and him and Rip between them ruined our shooting percentage for the game. But we won cause of the turnover discrepancy and better rebounding. We got up a ton more shots than they did.

Dyess had a double double. Lots of those outside jumpers made. Like I have said many times, on the rare occasion that Dyess hits em like that, he can help win a game. His shooting helped for sure in this one, and he hauled down plenty of boards.

Theo got in for a stretch in the first half, pulled down some offensive rebounds, helped tire Howard out a bit. On defense, Sheed was great late in the game guarding Howard. He stole the ball from Howard three straight times at one point. For the game, we fouled Howard a lot, and he did not make us pay at the line. Hunter played. Killed our offense for long stretches. Did nail a three to make up for a small part of that.

Turk showed some great scoring talent against us tonight, but also some lousy passing. Lewis, except for a very brief scoring spurt, choked on the big stage tonight, shooting poorly and contributing to the turnover problems of Orlando.

So how does a team that can't hold onto the ball, and can't rebound, make such a close game out of it. Back to paragraph one. We play the wrong players. This is very correctable. We have this person called a coach you see, and all this person has to do is quit playing guys who just can't play. That would be Hayes and Herrmann. Find different solutions for backup small forward. This is a must if we are going to get past the next round.

Who's got next? Boston, or Cleveland. Whichever one it is, we face a strong small forward. This could be a problem, as Flip still has not solved how to backup Prince. In this game, we were minus 15 with Prince sitting, and trying to use Hayes and then later Herrmann to back up Tay. Wrong players. Neither should even be dressed for us.

So how does a team that can't hold onto the ball, and can't rebound, make such a close game out of it. Back to paragraph one. We play the wrong players. This is very correctable. We have this person called a coach you see, and all this person has to do is quit playing guys who just can't play. That would be Hayes and Herrmann. Find different solutions for backup small forward. This is a must if we are going to get past the next round.

GO PISTONS!!!!!

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AA deserves the back-up forward role. Flip needs to stop the BS. He's successfully guarded Lebron, and has had success against BOS. He will be needed. I don't understand why at the end of the season we were playing him behind Tay, it was working beautifully, and it's scrapped in the PO's.

Chauncey needs to come back. I'm sick of this rotation. I don't understand the logic of playing the sucky vet over the rook who's a better player b/c of some sort of priority thing.

We won, but what a lucky win. We tried numerous times to lose. However, ORL obviously is just better than us at that.

Tay's min are ridiculous and can't be maintained. You lose nothing on defense by playing spellcheck behind him.

Stuck stepped up. Good job.

Also i know this is thinking way further ahead but height will be needed to match-up with floppy if the Cavs adavance (and their front court in general). <Amir>. They kill us on the boards.

My worry with the rotation is not neccessarily what was going to happen in the earlier rounds, but the defense and match-up advantages we will need in the ECF/Finals. That's when Amir will come into play esp against the WC teams. My faith that Flip will realize this is severely dwindling with AA's 2 sec, and Amir's stint on the inactive list instead of Arvis. Flip needs to learn to stop coaching scared (or stupid) whichever it is. TAKE RISKS. Play your bets players (even if they are rookies), don't be afraid to throw a player in a game.

The level of play has to seriously be stepped up in the next rounds. We had 3 turnovers. ORL had what 22?! They missed dozens of FT's and it took a game saving block to pull it out. Not really the emphatic win we were looking for, but i guess without CB i'll take it.

edited to add;

Also Sheed has been huge. Unsung hero on defense for sure. And our defense in general was a thing of beauty for a stretch there. One major positive out of this series.

First of all, what a run we have been privileged to watch. 6 straight? Unbelievable!

Stuckey grew up a bunch. They will have to pay attention to him now and that will open things up for others.

Dyss played like a man possessed. He willed us to a win. What a gamer! I have been on him this year but he can play big in big games (remember that first Miami series when he busted Van Gundy when Stan tried to played Shaq and Zo at the same time?).

Rip and Tay are playing like the stars that they are. Rip did get disjointed but those free throws were huge.

Tay was a bit out of sync and yet he hit that big three and then the block....Wow. Tell me defense isn't pretty. Or, somebody please tell David Stern.

First of all, what a run we have been privileged to watch. 6 straight? Unbelievable!

Stuckey grew up a bunch. They will have to pay attention to him now and that will open things up for others.

Dyss played like a man possessed. He willed us to a win. What a gamer! I have been on him this year but he can play big in big games (remember that first Miami series when he busted Van Gundy when Stan tried to played Shaq and Zo at the same time?).

Rip and Tay are playing like the stars that they are. Rip did get disjointed but those free throws were huge.

Tay was a bit out of sync and yet he hit that big three and then the block....Wow. Tell me defense isn't pretty. Or, somebody please tell David Stern.

The AP recap says that the Pistons' 3 turnovers tonight was a record low for a playoff game.

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I remember a PO game from last year (or year before?) when the Pistons had 5 TO's and I thought that was amazing. To do 3 with both a rook PG and a geriatric PG is sorta mind-blowing.

The game wasn't pretty, but was the type of win that I love best from the Pistons...team ball on both ends when it counts to get the job done. Getting stops: tight hustle D, forcing TO's, key blocks & boards. Ugly shooting percentage that it was from the Pistons, LB must be smiling in some satisfaction tonight

CB out for the last two games might be a blessing-in-disguise for the Pistons in the remainder of the playoffs. In his absence, the Pistons seem to have acquired a unity of purpose that I haven't seen since the 05 Finals.

Although the game was literally tight all the way, the TO's were one of the keys to the win for the Pistons for tonight and the whole series. Those 3 turnovers tonight yielded only 5 points for the Magic, while the Pistons cashed in 34 points off their 21 miscues. The Piston defense had 12 steals.

I think Ernie said that the Magic had 74 assist and 74 turnovers for the five game series.

The Pistons had 36 TO's for this series compared to the 96 TO's in the six game opening round vs the Sixers. They are taking care of the ball better and that has to carry over into the next to series when our shooting could possibly hurt us as both Cavs and Celtics D is a tad better than the Magic's.

We have this person called a coach you see, and all this person has to do is quit playing guys who just can't play. That would be Hayes and Herrmann. Find different solutions for backup small forward. This is a must if we are going to get past the next round.

Isn't it sort of fitting that Detroit moves on to the ECF's...finishing the semifinals strong after the name of Rufus Henry is batted about once or twice. That isn't a mere coincidence. Rufus Henry is just that good.

When Joe picked up Rufus' trail he was driving a CATA bus in Magic Johnsons hometown of Lansing. Most folks thought he was a war veteran, with the peg leg and the eye patch and all, but guys like Magic knew better.

Many a current NBA player has been playing basketball after dusk and heard the clickity clack of dice in the near distance. Suddenly, out would dance this Slick Rick clone (actually Rufus is the guy that Slick Rick stole his "look" from). Rufus preferred the funky chicken or the electric slide, but he could do it all. Word is, he taught Michael Jackson the moonwalk. Some folks contest this, but why else would Michael pay homage to the way Rufus keeps his shooting hand gloved when he's not stroking threes or shooting dice?

Either way, the guys game is the stuff of legend. Forget all those other shows about legendary guys. Rufus is still the best. He would beat any 4 players on the court right now. The problem is (as Joe soon quickly learned after signing him to a 10 day) he would rather drink, dance and shoot craps.... only occasionally stepping out of the shadows to school unsuspecting players worldwide like some basketball version of Candyman.

Normally he sounded like the boy that grew up on the streets of Brooklyn, and yet when he talked trash it was with a perfect British accent.

My computer at home crashed a couple days ago so this was the first game I watched from start to finish in over a year! I totally enjoyed it (and the Wings the night before too).

What a block!

I felt that they would win it the entire game, but that they would turn up the intensity when they needed to. Basically, I think that's what happened.

I'm very concerned about what happens next. Seems like they blow a team out game one and know they can let up a bit the next game, or later in that game. I don't think they can get away with that against any of the remaining teams. They haven't the last couple years. But we've been talking about the "switch" all year. This isn't news to anyone.

We know they can crush Cleveland and steal one in Boston. But WILL they change their old patterns?